Gig economy to address tech talent demand-supply gap

The changing business landscape models have ushered in an opportunity for the gig economy to become a key talent management strategy for enterprises. The gig economy focused on specialized skills requirement, employee demand elasticity and cost optimization are enabling organizations to embed gig for technology roles which traditionally were restricted to HR and support functions.

Talent continues to remain a key advantage for the Indian tech Industry. Globally, India has the 2nd largest annual supply of STEM graduates, 4x-4.5x higher than the USA, and is also a leader in terms of women diversity among STEM Graduates at 47.1%.

Though the accelerated demand for digital transformation has intensified the talent crunch globally, the gig workforce has emerged as an important talent management strategy for organizations and can play a key role in closing the tech talent demand-supply gap.

Notably, Software Development, UI/UX Design, and Data Analytics have emerged as the top three in-demand giggable skills within the technology sector. 65% Indian firms employing gig workers to tackle tech talent crunch, says NASSCOM’s report.

The report further says that India has the lowest tech talent gap among top tech locations such as the USA, China and UK. Strategies such as increased hiring of sub-contractors and external gig workforce especially for niche digital technologies and offering internal Gig platforms for better utilization of existing employees, amongst others, continue to support organizations in closing the gap faster.

As per the NASSCOM, Indeed and AON survey of over 70 organizations, nearly 2/3rd (65% of the surveyed organizations) of them are employing gig workers as of 2022, a higher share compared to 57% of the organizations in the year 2020. While the share of organizations employing Gig Workers has increased, their proportion remains less than 5% of the total workforce (For companies with more than 2000 full time employees).

However, for smaller organizations with less than 2000 full-time employees, gig worker proportion is more than 5%. Notably, none of the organizations have mentioned a decline in gig hiring. In about 15% of the surveyed organizations, the proportion of gig workers in the past two years has increased by more than 30%, proving the efficacy of the model.

Going forward, the future workforce will indeed be a blended model wherein the Gig economy is expected to play an important role not only as a talent management strategy but also accelerate job creation and boost the country’s economic growth. As we navigate the new world order, multiple models will co-exist with trust and transparency at the core of it.